Biovail Receives FDA Approval for Citalopram ODT

TORONTO, December 21, 2005 - Biovail Corporation
(NYSE:BVF)(TSX:BVF) announced today that it has received an
Approval Letter from the United States Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) for its New Drug Application for an orally disintegrating
tablet formulation of citalopram hydrobromide (HBr) for the
treatment of depression.

Biovail believes that its novel formulation of citalopram HBr,
may offer physicians a new dosing option with potential benefits
and prescribing flexibility that may be advantageous when
addressing the needs of certain patients.

Biovail's orally disintegrating tablet version of
immediate-release citalopram HBr will be available in 10mg, 20mg
and 40mg tablets by prescription only. Patients may benefit from
the convenience - particularly those who have difficulty swallowing
tablets, or those who may not, or do not, always have access to
water. A study of the American population concluded that nearly 40%
of adults have experienced problems with swallowing tablets - and a
significant proportion of those fail to comply properly with their
prescribed and ongoing dosage.

Biovail is currently considering a number of commercialization
options for this product.

Safety Precautions

Patients who take citalopram should see their doctor for regular
checks on their progress. Patients and their families should watch
out for worsening depression or thoughts of suicide, and for sudden
or severe changes in emotion, such as feeling anxious, agitated,
panicky, irritable, hostile, aggressive, impulsive, severely
restless, overly excited and hyperactive, or not being able to
sleep. If this happens, especially at the beginning of
antidepressant treatment or after a change in dose, call your
health care professional.

About Depression

Statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO) show that
each year, 9.5 per cent of the American population, or about 18.8
million adults, suffer from a depressive illness. One of every four
women and one in 10 men can expect to be diagnosed with depression
during their lifetime. The economic cost for this disorder is high,
but the cost in human suffering cannot be estimated. Depressive
illnesses often interfere with normal functioning and cause pain
and suffering not only to those who have a disorder, but also to
those who care about them.

The WHO also predicts that depression will become the leading
cause of disability by the year 2020 - second only to ischemic
heart disease.

About Citalopram

Citalopram hydrobromide is a highly selective and potent
serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine 5-HT) reuptake inhibitor with
minimal effects on the neuronal reuptake of norepinephrine and
dopamine. The ability of citalopram to potentiate serotonergic
activity in the central nervous system via inhibition of the
neuronal reuptake of serotonin is thought to be responsible for its
antidepressant action.